Upon turning around, he watches as a lightning emblazoned shredder swings down to cut him.
*Bam!*
Alvarach's nails held in place, and the Emperor was unable to move it further.
"Damn it!" the Emperor was pissed.
The fact that Alvarach's nails withstood shredder so easily meant it held a hardness matching adamantium if not higher.
Doing that, Alvarach sees Ezra flashing off.
'If he goes further than that, it'll be tough to catch him'
His priorities changed, catching Ezra was more important than killing the Emperor.
Turning his head backwards like an owl, he speaks to his two subordinates watching from the ground in demon tongue. "Serekrin" (Kill him)
Alvarach hit the shredder away and flashed off like a mirage.
All this happened in seconds. It'd been less than a minute since Ezra took off on his speed run.
Of course, he didn't forget to leave the Emperor a gift.
"Gah!"
A large gash appeared on both Andrew's shoulders.
Alvarach, who was already sped off, smiled.
Flashing off, he flew above Andrew, positioning his nails to slice into Andrew's shoulders and cut off his arms, leaving him as pickings for his subordinates.
But Andrew reacted, proving himself as the Emperor by putting shredder horizontally across his shoulders, reducing the attack to only leave a large gash.
Alvarach doubted his two subordinates could kill the Emperor, but neither could the Emperor kill them, so the battle would enter a stalemate.
Meanwhile…
"Urk!"
While no one was looking, Crea gradually healed.
She stayed alive despite being cut in half thanks to the portal's effects, while she wasn't powerful enough to regenerate a new set of legs, she maintained consciousness.
With her two parts fallen not far from one another, she conjoined back as a whole using the small time frame.
With the portal closing soon after, her regeneration rate went back to normal, but that was okay since she was able to stay alive.
In silence and amidst the chaos, she steadily healed, exhilarated at the thought of meeting the demon lord.
Meanwhile…
*Crackle*Spark*
Ezra was moving in a world without sound, stepping in and out of different landscapes by the second as he ran to the heart of the main battlefield, leaving a trail of scorched earth in his wake.
Unbeknownst to him, a black dot was following behind him and closing the distance inch after inch.
*VOM*
"Huh?"
Master ranks paused involuntarily as Ezra flashed past.
Like a bright light in the dark, his massive use of mana presented his presence as radiance covering others like the sun.
For such an immense presence to pass by so fast, most master's felt that their senses must've glitched.
But were subsequently more confused when they felt ominous energy even heavier than the first passed by seconds after, leaving them with a stomach-ache.
The grandmasters were only a bit better off as Ezra's speed was beyond them as well, but even the weakest was able to catch his silhouette.
*Klang*Klang*Klang*Klang*
"Ah!"
"Chiek!"
"Puck!"
Shouts and screams erupted from every direction on the field of battle, as man pierced the flesh of others, soaking the floor with blood.
The shouts were then drowned by the sounds of metal scraping metal and the numerous explosions brought forth by the spell of mages.
At this moment a transparent layer of aura in the form of a dome brushed past every soldier and they flinched, some had their minds turn blank and some fainted.
Seconds after, Ezra appeared, emblazoned in lightning and cutting through the army like butter.
He paid no attention to who was friend or foe as without raising a finger, the lightning he generated scorched many to death.
Those in the way jumped away without being told.
Reaching the rear, Ezra stopped, generating a wave of lightning that blew away those near and damaged the earth quite a bit.
'Ssss'
His body was sizzling with heat.
'Ah…'
Only now did Ezra realize he had a problem.
He didn't know who the space mage the Emperor spoke of was.
More importantly…[Ezra, RUN]
Zydrax's loud command threw him in disarray, but his eyes widened seconds after.
While running, neither he nor Zydrax felt the ominous aura heading in his direction.
Turning his head, he could see the dot racing towards him, and the pulsating darkness wrapped around it.
'You have to be kidding!'
It was one all too familiar.
Alvarach had followed him all the way here.
'Shit!'
He picked up once more, running.
Alas, the few seconds he'd wasted stopping allowed Alvarach to bridge the gap, and because he took off running off this time without any preparation, his starting momentum was nowhere near his previous streak.
Alvarach closed the distance before Ezra could get far and blew a large ball of fire right in his running course, throwing him off.
Jumping, Ezra took to the skies, but the abrupt change of movements caused gaps.
Holding his initial speed, Alvarach reached him in no time, with an expression of fury.
"You won't be leaving until I say so"
Before realizing it, Alvarach arrived at his side and smacked him.
Having gotten smacked once before, Ezra gave a timely response, pulling out Skyfall from his ring to block the attack.
*Kak-
Alvarach retreated ever so slightly, his face turning unsightly as he pervades the gleaming scythe.
The beautiful piece of craft was repugnant to him, he could smell it.
It was made with the body parts of other demons, with the part of demon's lords also.
"You dare!" he shouted. "You dare bring this in front of me?"
Alvarach felt nothing for the fallen demons, after all, battle was the way of their race, they were simply weak.
Even then, he felt deeply insulted seeing such a weapon pulled against him by a being who took part of his power from him.
Alvarach determined Ezra too unusual to leave alone and wanted to capture him.
Now though…
'There's no need to capture this insolent brat whole, cutting of one or two of his limbs would do'
He was out for blood.
Immense bloodthirst was aimed at Ezra, but he wasn't fazed, he witnessed it one too many times before.
After all, just because he wasn't Kevin anymore didn't mean he forgot the things learnt.
Alvarach attacked. Ezra countered.
Upon contact, Ezra was hurt, Alvarach's strike came faster than before.
[Focus, he's not playing around]
Ezra straightened his face, pushing his power output to the highest.
As if responding to provocation, Alvarach's aura started deepening, coalescing at one point and became heavier, all while he never stopped moving.
Ezra could've dropped to the ground, but he would suffer for it because of Alvarach's ability to easily dish out large scale attacks-something the Emperor was incapable of.
Even at the top of his game, Ezra only managed to mitigate Alvarach's attacks, he was unable to completely stop them.
He'd managed to endure this long only because of his healing ability was preposterous, his blood affinity prevented him from bleeding, moreover, it also provided substantial healing properties which multiplied with his base healing ability, which by the way was already above par because of his strengthened physique gave a huge edge above other grandmaster.
Other grandmasters would be riddled with injuries bleeding out, and paralyzed by now, yet here Ezra was, healing after every strike.
Sometimes, Alvarach would attack with fire to blind his line of sight and then followed up with a physical attack.
Mind you, with Alvarach's nails coated with poison, Ezra was only still moving because he had cultivated the poison blood ability.
Surely Alvarach had greater attacks in his arsenal, but his pride wouldn't let him use such powers against what he deemed to be an insect, only slightly larger than the rest of his counterparts.
Moreover, with nowhere to run, Alvarach was willing to wilt down Ezra's endurance, besides, it wasn't like anything could stop him anyways.
With every strike exchanged, Ezra was pushed back, all his powers and he was unable to mount a decent strike, only serving a live target.
The odds were tilting more and more in favour of his opponent.
On cue, a large rock came into his sights, stopping Alvarach's attack.
Slicing it in half, Alvarach looked to see the intruder.
There he was a distance away.
Ezra recognized him straight away.
'Fredrick?'
Without missing a beat, Ezra struck, not missing the opportunity handed to him.
Like that, the battle changed, with Fredrick interfering time after time, having realized that getting physical was disadvantageous, he threw large pieces of stone, one after another, making sure to time in a way that gave Ezra an advantage.
Also, it split Alvarach's attention.
If he tried to go for Fredrick, Ezra stopped him and if he went for Ezra, Fredrick interfered with him as well.
Alvarach launched fireballs at Fredrick, but at such a distance, he was able to dodge easily, getting hit very few times.
Then, things took a turn as Alvarach launched three consecutive large fireballs, stopping Fredrick in his tracks.
Just as he was about to strike Ezra…
"Don't you dare forget about me"
The battle had a new entrant.
